lrom Sharmila - Indian Aung Saan Suu Kyi

Irom Chanu Sharmila (born March 14, 1972), also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Menghaobi" ("the fair one") is a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur. Since 2 November 2000, she has been on hunger strike to demand that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which she blames for violence in Manipur and other parts of India's northeast. Having refused food and water for more than ten years, she has been called "The world's longest hunger striker"

           She is a living story of peace, non-violence, resistance. Her strength is unmatched, her determination strong. She has decided to singlehandedly take on the mighty Indian State. Suffering in solitude on a hospital bed in Manipur, she refuses to eat. She even cleans her teeth with dry cotton ensuring not even a drop of water escapes inside her body. She is on an indefinite fast for more than a decade now. Last week, she was released from judicial custody on completion of her one year imprisonment (for trying to commit suicide), but rearrested as she continued her fast-unto-death. Forcibly fed lentil soup through a catheter attached to her nose, in perpetual imprisonment, somehow, they just can’t let her die.

The reason behind this fasting for a decade is AFSPA

The AFSPA was passed in 1958 by an act of Parliament. It conferred special powers upon armed forces in allegedly "disturbed areas" in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was consequently extended to Jammu and Kashmir as The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990. Hence, the security forces, in these areas, can… "Fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law" or against "assembly of five or more persons..." It can arrest without a warrant and can also enter and search any premises to make arrests.

           

The darkest dimension is that it gives the security forces ‘legal immunity’ for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law. Nor is the government's judgment on why an area is found to be "disturbed" subject to judicial review. No wonder, human rights activists, constitutional experts and democrats call this law “brazenly draconian and anti-people”.

With Irom Sharlima, AFSPA arrived as a vicious circle. It all started on the fated day of Thursday, November 2, 2000, when the notorious Assam Rifles indiscriminately and without provocation gunned down a group of 10 citizens at a bus stop in Malom in retaliation to an alleged attack on their convoy the same morning by unknown persons. Most of the killed were women and children. Irom Sharmila Chanu, who was then a 28-year-old young human rights activist, went up to her mother Sukhi Devi, sought her blessings and quickly decided to prolong her weekly Thursday fast. Thus arrived the starting point of the legendary fast-unto-death of an ordinary, young, almost apolitical Manipuri woman, who, until now, would cycle to meetings and the market, living a quiet and obscure life.

In the Northeastern state of Manipur and beyond, Irom Sharmila is an iconic figure. The people of Manipur refer to her as Menghaobi, the fair one. She has become the face of their alienation and resistance, their opposition to the arbitrary ways of the Indian State ruled by Delhi where innocent young men and women have been routinely killed and raped by sections of the Indian security forces. The Manorama Devi rape and encounter is still fresh in the minds of the women of Manipur. Then, in disgust and anger, the mothers of Manipur had come out of their homes, stripped naked outside the Assam Rifles headquarters in Imphal, and challenged the army to come and rape them: “Come Indian Army, Come, Rape Us,” said the banner held by the naked ‘mothers of Manipur’.

A poetess and a voracious reader, she spends her time reading and writing and likes to do her work herself. “I have to be strong. I have to fight,”

Born in the family of a class IV employee in 1972, Sharmila is the youngest among nine siblings. She was breast fed by other women for her mother was already dry when she was born. “Perhaps that is why she has grown so socially conscious and politically committed,”

“My spiritual fight for the sake of justice will definitely succeed... In this mundane world, living creatures are bound to die some day. So I don’t have any unnecessary fear for my life...,” she said in an interview. Hence she fasts, eternally. Fearless Irom, with iron in her soul.

My view: India being the world's second biggest democratic country and the country that has raised it collars as a peace oriented nation, why need such an act to control its own people. India who never went for a cross border military attack, the country that never started a war itself why they use it armed forces to kill and rape its own blood. When will Iron Sharmila's ten years fasting for a secured land will come to an end?

என்று தணியும் இந்த சுதந்திர தாகம்........

இரா. இராஜேஷ் குமார்

References:

The week leader: http://www.theweekendleader.com/Heroism/432/Daughter-of-Manipur.html

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irom_Chanu_Sharmila

Google Images: http://www.google.com/search?q=irom+sharmila

True leaders only create limelight - and need not necessarily bathe in it

The Sunday version of Hindustan Times & Times of India didn’t have lead picture of M S Dhoni in the frame after winning the world cup . I then noticed that it was difficult to spot him even in the picture of The Times of India. On news channels, too, the pictures of the players with the cup did not have Dhoni in them. Interesting to see the spat between Vadivelu & Vijayakanth over-riding the World cup fever in Sun Network J

Where was Dhoni? I was aghast! This set me thinking.

Dhoni has won the Twenty20 World Cup, got India to the No. 1 position in test cricket ranking, won the IPL and CL, and finally, after 28 years - THE World Cup. But, who is taken around the stadium on the players' shoulders? Sachin. Who is the stadium rooting for? Sachin & Gary . What is the mystery?

You can turn around and say that Dhoni was lucky to have been the captain at the right time. He had great senior players and talented youngsters in the team. However, the fact is that he has had very different teams in all the championships that he has won, whether in Twenty20, test matches, IPL/CL or ODIs (one-day internationals). He has been the glue to put the teams together, not the other way round.

The fact is that leaders are often considered to be lucky when the times are going good, but does someone really take note of the invisible efforts being put in by the individual? Keeping the team together and excited is one of the most important, albeit undermined, jobs done by a successful leader - didn't Dhoni just demonstrate that?

Look at Dhoni's statements over a period of time, which are honest, to say the very least: "We are not a good fielding side", "I took some wrong decisions", "reading the pitch wrong and playing three seamers". He has taken on his teammates publicly. He has also backed team members and taken tough decisions at the same time.

Backing Piyush Chawla to the hilt, or dropping Yuvraj or Raina are tough decisions taken by him. I am yet to notice bias in his decision-making. He has dropped Ashwin from ODIs, despite him being a worthy team mate in CSK. More often than not, leaders with a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) style of working are the most criticized lot, even if it helps to keep the team aware of their strengths and weaknesses promptly.

When this leader takes the blame, he is criticized for not carrying out things properly. However, when the same leader blames it on his team, it is seen as a 'Blame Game'. Aren't we a bit too critical of leaders - including Dhoni?

Since becoming the captain in ODIs, he transformed himself from a dasher to an accumulator. With enough dashers around, he changed his role in the team for the sake of the team. As a captain, his average is 52.7 runs as against 44.2 runs as a non-captain, though his strike rate has dropped from 96.3 to 82.4. The number of sixes hit by him per innings has gone down to 0.56, from 0.95. A number of times, a leader puts his individual performance at the back seat and adapts himself according to the team's requirement.

I can go on about Dhoni's professional achievements as a captain and his humility as an individual. Any comparisons with Ganguly and Afridi are misplaced. He definitely doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve. He is the real man - taking 'criticism' and 'failures' squarely in the face and letting the entire credit of the 'achievements' go to his individual team members. To me, all this and more make Dhoni a true leader although I am not a vivid fan of Cricket !

Then, suddenly, the realization dawns on me! This is about where the limelight lies - or where it does not! So, "Do leaders shy away when it comes to being in the limelight?"

We should not pity him for missing being in the frame of the Hindustan Times lead picture on the day the nation went crazy. We should give him due credit. It is about stepping back and letting your colleagues savor the moment! It is about having confidence and absence of insecurity - a situation in which you let your team steal the limelight, while you smile at the back - content with yourself as much as your team's performance.

It is this confidence that makes him appreciate the past. Examples are of co-sharing the trophy with Kumble, or letting Ganguly lead the last few overs of his test career. It is this confidence that still makes him thank all his seniors for the victory of his team!

I can say that true leaders only create limelight and not necessarily be in it - the M S Dhoni way!

A R Rahman The Spirit of Music - authorized biography of A R Rahman

Hi Guys, could you believe this?

Rahman is about to release his first authorized biography, A R Rahman The Spirit of Music, is going to reveal several shocking things about his fiercely guarded private life.

      Written by renowned historian, Nasreen Munni Kabir. The book reveals the genius behind the soulful music which the maestro belts out. However, what had shocked the writer while she interviewed Rahman over a period of three years was he struggled to understand his life and how he worked hard to find a reason to live. In a startling revelation, the book quotes Rahman of having “suicidal tendencies” when he was young.

     A leading national daily has published a news report about some such startling revelations from the book. Apparently, the book quotes on such incident where Rahman , at one point in time, didn’t want to live and how 1989 was the turning point in his life when his mother sold all the gold jewelers kept aside for the marriage of his younger sisters. 

       Rahman says, “With that money I bought my first Fostex 16-track mixer/recorder. In those days, film music in Chennai was recorded on single mono track and here I had 16 tracks. All those years of struggle, humiliation, being ordered around by other people, seeing worry on the faces of my family, remembering the feeling of being overwhelmed by an inferiority complex, the lack of self-esteem, and even at times, fighting suicidal thoughts – all that seemed to fade away. Sitting in the music studio that night, and staring at my new recorder, I felt like a king. The new me was born and the future seemed glorious.” Nasreen says she was shocked when Rahman spoke of suicidal tendencies and asked him if he really meant it, and he told her, “It felt so hopeless and I often wondered how I was going to get out of all that.” 

      There are many more startling revelations about his private life and when the book hits the stands on April 6, it surely is going to be a best-seller in no time! 

      I am sure that this would have answered many of the unanswered questions which were in your heart for a long time about your future.

பிரபஞ்சத்தை உருவாக்கியவர் கடவுள் அல்ல, இயற்பியலே!-ஸ்டீபன் ஹாக்கிங்

God didn't create the Universe: Stephen Hawking

London:  British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking says no, arguing in his new book that there need not be a God behind the creation of the universe.

The concept is explored in "The Grand Design," excerpts of which were printed in the British newspaper The Times on Thursday. The book, written with fellow physicist Leonard Mlodinow, is scheduled to be published by Bantam Press on September 9"The Grand Design," which the publishers call Hawking's first major work in nearly a decade, challenges Isaac Newton's theory God must have been involved in creation because our solar system couldn't have come out of chaos simply through nature But Hawking says it isn't that simple. To understand the universe, it's necessary to know both how and why it behaves the way it does, calling the pursuit "the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything."
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/god-didnt-create-the-universe-stephen-hawking-49128?cp "We shall attempt to answer it in this book," he wrote. "Unlike the answer given in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' ours won't be simply '42.'" The number 42 is the deliberately absurd answer to the "Ultimate Question" chosen by sci-fic author Douglas Adams. Hawking, who is renowned for his work on black holes, said the 1992 discovery of another planet orbiting a star other than the sun makes "the coincidences of our planetary conditions far less remarkable and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings." In his best-selling 1988 book "A Brief History of Time," Hawking appeared to accept the possibility of a creator, saying the discovery of a complete theory would "be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God." But "The Grand Design" seems to step away from that, saying physics can explain things without the need for a "benevolent creator who made the Universe for our benefit." "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing," the excerpt says. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going." Hawking retired last year as the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University after 30 years in the position. The position was once held by Newton.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/god-didnt-create-the-universe-stephen-hawking-49128?cp